


Time’s Reprise

by Mikamod



Category: Maurice (1987), Maurice - E. M. Forster
Genre: Alternate Universe - Book/Movie Fusion, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, F/F, M/M, Multi, kinda they reincarnate as women so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2018-11-05 02:47:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11004384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikamod/pseuds/Mikamod
Summary: “Now, we shan’t never be parted.”Something had taken those words as something more than the lifelong vow they were, perhaps fate or a type of God, she didn’t know but Allison does know that she was once Alec, been a coal miner, done everything to live week to week, had fought in the first Great War,  and been in love with Maurice. Still is in love with Maurice. She didn’t think she would be so lucky with two lives in a row, until she takes a job at Pendersleigh Park once again. Finding an all too familiar pair.She isn’t the only one to be born again, history is replaying.





	1. Inevitable of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I'm new to this fandom and this is an idea that wouldn't leave me alone. I am American but I tried to use the correct terms for everything. I hope you enjoy reading the first chapter of this idea.
> 
> Also, this is un-betaed

Allison never thought that she'd be looking at this house again, feel the same gravel under her feet after she ran away with Maurice over a hundred years ago. The house itself was in a moderate condition, the outside paint worn and dingy vines crawling up the pillars on the front porch. she'd read about it online. They were restoring it, trying to bring it back to its glory day, or at least the Edwardian plans.  
Allison wasn't sure why that specific time period but some part of her, Alec perhaps or her own curiosity had her returning to the old land. 

She had already made plans to see the boathouse, their boathouse. She never gave thought to why she had been reborn, maybe God wanted to play a cruel joke, let her live in a time where she could live freely with her beloved, if he so chose with her being well ,a her this time round, but have no guarantee they would meet again.

The door was held open for her by what appeared to be a stack of old blueprints and books, the person holding the stack didn't say a single word, taking off in a flurry once Allison had made it through the door.

"You must be the gardener." The voice was posh and clearly used to being listened to the moment Allison laid eyes on the woman in front of her she recognized her and knew that she wasn't the only one God was tricking.

"Scudder?"

"Clive." Allison saw no need for formality at this point. The woman in front of her was what she would have imagined. An expensive well put together suit, dark rich hair tuck neatly away, icy blue eyes stared her down, the image of professionalism and class, she was already grinding on Allison's nerves. 

"It's Claira now actually." Her tone was harsh, which only served to piss off Allison more. They may still be employee and employer but that was a different relationship now. 

"Allison." The two brunettes stared each other down, neither wanting to back down first. 

"Right, you'll meet with Carter the head carpenter out by the old greenhouse. I'll send out the historian with the old plans for you two to rebuild it for now." Claira looked at the stairs as running footsteps sounded. 

"Sorry, Claira!" Despite the fact that the voice was just as posh as Claira's Allison found it sounded more like music to her. Her heart nearly beat out of her chest as a well-known soul rushed into the foyer. Maurice was as beautiful a woman as he was a handsome man. The same lovely eyes, soft blue, though her hair was long Allison was certain it would be just as soft, she almost laughed, the blond had her bangs parted in the exact same way. "I didn't realize the time. Oh!"

Allison waited for the moment of recognition, to embrace her love once again. It was amazing, if her mum ever dragged her back to church she'd have to apologize for cursing God so much.

"This must be the head gardener, I'm Marie Hall." 

Claira casually tucked some rouge stands of Marie's, a lovely name, behind her ear. "Yes. This is Allison Scudder." Claira smirked at her, even as Marie held out her hand to shake Allison's own.  
Her heart nearly fell out, did Marie not have Maurice's memories? She could have been mistaking but she felt it deep in her soul, the same as the feeling Claira gave her, the three were undoubtedly connected. The blatant way Claira touched Marie pushed at Allison's temper. 

"It's nice to be able to work with you." Allison took the offered hand and almost felt the spark travel between the two and saw something shift in the blond's eyes. Before the hand was taken out of her grip. 

"Well, we should head down to the greenhouse to meet Carter."

"Right, lead the way."

-line-

_She looked at the woods around her house, the once green trees white, the leaves nothing but ash the trees burnt from the inside, it only took a second of wind to cast the ash off the tree and into the air. For a second she was reminded of winter snow, near silent and gentle, laying a clean start onto the earth but the heat reminded her this was the last visage of her home on the air. The white coving the ground was anything but a clean start. Marie didn't know this place, didn't know why this cabin in the middle of nowhere made her feel at home and why the ash made her want to cry._

Marie jolted up from her temporary desk, looking around her, pausing at the window and for a reason, she wasn't sure of she expected to see an old wooden ladder propped up. She shook her head clear staring at the blueprints that detailed the second story where she was, she found the room that she was staying in finding it quickly.

"Russet Room," even just saying the name sent a flutter up her spine, a shiver she'd been getting ever since she'd met Claira Durham at Oxford, and at times she see's a young man standing in Claira's places that looked like they could be related. 

She picked up her phone to check the time. 

"Oh shit!"

Marie gathered the blueprint and lists needed for the greenhouse stuffing it into her messenger bag, before hightailing it down to the foyer, the head gardener was supposed to be here today. Marie couldn't believe that she was once again running late to a meeting. 

The gardener was a lovely woman, lovely curls framing a face that was almost soft. The eye's struck her like they could see all that Marie was. The same shiver as before raced through her both upon meeting the woman's brown eyes and taking the woman's hand. 

The two made their way to the greenhouse, walking in a gentle silence. Despite this Marie started to develop a headache, at first it was a barely noticeable ache, but the closer they got to the greenhouse it went to a pounding. She'd had these migraines her whole life, the only got worse when she met Claria and worse still when they started on the restoration together.

Marie thought that it could be agitated by the gardener's perfume, all she could smell was apricot and evening primrose. She would politely ask the younger woman to tone it down after the meeting with Carter.

The man greeted them soft Irish tones bouncing through his words. "Why hello Marie, how's my favorite bookworm?"

"I'm good Carter." Marie turns to gesture to Allison. "This is Allison. "

The two shook hands as Marie unrolled the blueprints on the only table, and then a notebook that had a list of plants that had occupied the space. The two other joined her at the table, looking over it with her.

"This should be repaired by the end of the week" Carter assured with the same light tone he said everything with, "Hey curls." Marie could have laughed, Carter had a habit of nicknaming the people around the estate. 

"What Allison too long for you." Marie worried that she'd have to play refer between the two but Allison only laughed. "Allie work for you?"

"You got it, now what else will you need?"

Marie dug into her bag looking for her medicine, hoping to have relief from jackhammer in her head.

"Bookworm?" Carter looked to her over the table, Allison was looking at her too with her eyes flooded with far too much concern for someone she had just met, it made her feel cared for, almost loved and despite the fact that she'd never known Allison, it felt like a well-worn love as soft and precious as a favorite blanket. 

"Sorry, my head is killing me." She turned away from them dry swallowing the two pills one for pain, the other for nausea, before throwing the bottles back into her bag. "So what are our plans?"

"Well I can't do anything in here till it's rebuilt, but I can help get the overgrown vines and flower beds by the porch," Allison stated. "Though some of these plants are still here, I'm actually surprised but see those vines." Marie followed her pointing to see vines around a tall fence. "Those are grape vines. I'm not sure how they can be tamed but I can try."

"Thank you, Claria will need all your paperwork by tomorrow night, you're free to use any of the marked rooms as offices here if you'd like the country may have gotten closer to the city but I still can't imagine dragging all the paperwork and such back and forth every day." She looked around the place and for a second saw what it might have looked like, even people inside of it. A glimpse of a man with the same eyes as Allison, she felt sharp pain instead of the almost pleasant shiver. "Oh except the Russet Room and the Main Study, I'm in the Russet Room and Claria's using the Main Study." 

Marie gathered her stuff, leading the others back to the house, starting to feel the medication kick in. Allison kept pace with her looking ready to catch her if anything happens, the same well-worn comfort rested in Marie's bones. It didn't drive off the horrid headache any faster, didn't help the medicine but it still felt good. 

As they entered the house Marie looked around for Claria finding a note on the main table. She rolled her eyes and started up the stairs, a gentle hand was on her elbow and the small of her back. Oh god, it was like a shift in her whole body, it was pleasant until it wasn't. 

"Are you gonna be sick?"

Allison helped her to the Russet Room, Marie almost asked how the woman knew how to get there but was thankful for the small bed that was in the room. It felt like they had been here before, but fuck she felt like she was going to puke.

"Thank you for your help, Allison."

"No problem, love." A gentle kiss on her forehead and gentle fingers in her hair lead her into sleep.


	2. Memoria in Cincinno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Storms loom in the distance, in more than one sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading up to this point and for coming back for this chapter which I hope you enjoy.

Allison stayed on the edge of Marie's bed, running her fingers gently through the blond's hair, an intimately familiar position, being on both ends of the action when needed, nightmares of muddy trenches and collapsed shafts a frequent night time visitor. 

She took the time to look closer at her beloved's new form, still taller than her own but slight, carrying all those books around seemed to build up her arms. The nails caught Allison's gaze, while she no longer had the habit it appeared Marie did, nails bitten to the quick even her nail beds and cuticles torn and irritated. Even as Alec, Allison's nails had never gotten that bad. A small scar was on the back of Marie's thumb running between her first and second knuckle. It looked like the skin had been stripped by something. She quietly got up, taking one look back before softly shutting the door. 

Looking at the time, she sighed knowing that she'd have to head home already, the fact that the sky was starting to gather black clouds was her biggest sign, of course as she hit the stair landing Claria was coming in the front door.

"Where's Marie?"

"Upstairs, she got sick." Allison glared at her a thousand sharp words resting on her tongue but she didn't want to start a fight and wake up Marie by mistake, so she stuck to a simple question. "Why can't she remember?"

Claria looked away. "I- I don't know. She sometimes has nightmares about the war but it doesn't seem to, I don't know okay Scudder."

"Don't know or don't want to find out?" She questioned crossly, arms crossed over her chest. "You have more to gain from Marie not remembering Maurice."

"What do I have to gain exactly?"

"She doesn't remember that you broke her heart over your own fear, that you were all too happy to string her along."

"I did the smart thing," Claria cut off the building rage simmering in Allison's voice, which only served to agitate her further. "Why would I invite her to help with this, " Claria outstretched her arm to the room, the building around them. "if I was trying to stop her from regaining her memories."

Allison really had no reply to that, it would be stupid to have Marie at Pendersleigh if the goal was to keep her memory locked away, she couldn't think of why Marie didn't have her memories. Though she had nothing to compare except her own.

"How to you get your memories?" She leaned back against an end table, shooting her roommate a text that she'd be late before making brief eye contact with Claria. 

"I've always had them, it was so normal for me to have two lives that it was more shocking that other people didn't have a second set of memories ."

"When I let it slip to my parents they took me to a shrink, it was hectic though and they stopped after a few visits between their jobs and my four siblings it was too much when the shrink said there was nothing wrong, though I did kinda lie and say Alec was an imaginary friend."

The two both laughed a little, a brief moment of levity in a heavy moment.

"What if Marie's parents took her to a psychologist and they tried to 'fix' her memories. Like, supprese them." Claria suggested a muffled scream interrupted whatever her next theory was. The two bolted up the stairs. The screams died into whimpers as they got closer to Marie's room.

Allison nearly woke up Marie but Claira stopped her. "She barely knows you so waking up to a stranger might freak her out more just stay there." 

"Rie? Come on." Claria shook the blond's shoulder, keeping the woman from springing up from the bed. "Hey, hey there are you okay?"

-Line-

_She couldn't see further than her own hand, something was wrong. The damp heat felt sticky, felt confining like the shaft she was in was closing in, the ground tremored beneath her feet each step off balance from the last one. There! Just a head was the person she was rushing to find, and yet further behind him was light. She was cut off from the light by the ceiling giving way, a pained cry from the other side pierced her heart, she started to dig and claw through the dirt, the smell of the wet earth now suffocating. "Alec! Alec! Say something!"_

Marie registered the gentle hand holding her down in her panicked mind first, Claria's voice came through next. 

Was she okay? Fuck Marie didn't know she still felt the wet cold dirt under what was left of her nails, the scent was fresh in her mind. Though the rest of the dream escaped her, why was she in that mine shaft? Who was the man, Alec? that she was so desperate to reach. 

Looking around she set eye's on Allison, thanking her memory for retaining the woman's name, standing at the door, a soft concerned expression on her face, even as another emotion, it almost struck Marie as jealousy clouded her eyes. 

Claira still hadn't moved away from the bed, running her hand up and down Marie's back.  
"Rie?" 

"I'm okay Claira, just a bad dream."

"Must have been some dream we heard you from downstairs." Allison was clearly trying for a casual tone and it wasn't working, the words had a bite to them that Marie couldn't explain, what reason did Allison have to be short with her, Marie looked between the two brunettes.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted something, and the thought that she had interrupted something between the two saddened her, though not for the reason she thought it would. It made her want to pull the gardener close and never let her go. 

Marie nudged Claria out of the way making her way past Allison, stopping outside the door. "I'll just-" without her go-ahead, her hands started to fidget, her nail scratching the back of her thumb, a terrible nervous habit. "I'll leave you two alone maybe go take a walk." She barely got it out before she rushed, not ran she still had some pride, all the way out the door.

-Line-

"Allison." Claria snatched the woman's arm, she wanted to stop Marie but knew her friend needed time to herself. She pulled the other woman down to sit beside her on the bed. 

"Look, Marie is a smart woman, it's gonna start raining soon she'll be back as soon as it starts to sprinkle."

Looking back Claria should have realized with their luck it wouldn't be that simple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, as always feel free to leave a comment or contact me at my tumblr ideasandrps


	3. Finis in Tempestas Minor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marie looks for shelter in the storm, Allison looks for Marie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is late, and I am so sorry but thank you for your comments up to here which encouraged me to finish this.

Marie had let her feet guide her, not focusing on the path she was taking or the weather around her. The storm rolled in quicker than she thought and was worse than she had expected. Now she was lost in the more heavily wooded part of the property, soaked to the bone and shivering. 

She decided to push on, keep walking forward, she came out of the woods into a small cliff, down at the bottom of it a few feet away was a river. Marie figured a boathouse, there had to be one somewhere resting by the water, could provide shelter from the elements. 

She took a step closer to the edge, preparing to climb down not taking into account the age of the ground beneath her and the rain soaking into it, the edge gave way as her weight settled on it sending her crashing down the side. 

She heard a loud, sicking crack.

-line-

It had been half an hour since the storm started, Claria was still trying Marie's cell hoping that the younger woman had it on her person, she almost missed Allison storming out the door. Claria walked beside her just barely grabbing the other woman’s wrist, her fingertips just brushing it.

"Hey."

"No." Allison didn't slow down. "I'm not going to wait here while she's out there in this."

Claria sighed, apparently stubbornness carried over, Scudder was as reckless as ever. "How are you going to find her? Even after my grandfather was forced to sell some we still have over seven acres of land." 

"The boathouse."

"She doesn't even remember where it is!" Claria tried to pull Allison back, to stop and make her think for once in her lives. "You could get hurt, what help would you be if you find her and are injured?"

Allison yanked her arm away. "I made Maurice a promise. Unlike you, I kept my promises."

The words delivered like a slap to the face. Claira, Clive, had wondered once or twice how much of their story Maurice had told Scudder. How the man could have described the one who shattered his heart to the one who had treasured it.

Claria watched as Allison left, knowing that she was never the winner, never the one to keep Marie. Hall and Scudder, she sighed knowing that they would always be drawn to each other.   
She turned back to the foyer, the two would both need dry clothes and something to warm them up. So she turned to Marie’s office hoping the younger kept some clothes here at the least she knew there were towels in the hall closet and blankets in the attic.

Upon entering the Russet Room the first thing she noticed was Marie’s phone, explaining why Marie hadn’t been picking up. Not that it ruled out the blond being unconscious in the woods or some other terrible fate.

Hall would always be a source of worry for her it seems.

-Line-

Marie knew she was lucky to not lose consciousness, even as she felt hot blood dripping down her neck. She tried to stand but found her leg hurt too much, she tried to look at it and was thankful that she couldn't see any bone sticking out but her relief was short-lived, it could still be broken.

She looked up and almost as if he had summoned by the crack of thunder, illuminated by a flash of lighting saw him, a blond man she knew. Oh, she'd seen him in her great-grandmother Ada's photos, Maurice. She reached out her hand to the spectator, but another flash of lighting caused the apparition to move away from her.

She stumbled up, determined to follow him, though as she did so the spectator appeared in a soldier’s uniform, covered in coal. It shifted between the forms, she was so focused on the ghost that she stumbled over a tree root. She dug her nails into the dirt frustration tangled in her mind with visions of a someone else's life.

This wasn't real, she knew it wasn't real, it was like when she was a kid, but it was the only hope that she had.

Pain radiated from everywhere, as memories twisted and mingled, but she still had to keep moving forward keep following her past.The boathouse should be close now, every inch her old life washed back to her, every footfall confused her. 

She remembers trips to a psychologist, a life that wasn't hers, vivid hallucinations the doctor called them. She would remember trenches with barbed wire, and it terrified her parents when she'd call out at night as a small child for an unknown man with desperate terror in her voice.  
She frowned when another flash of lightning struck and with it the phantom was gone as if it had never even been there: which she wondered if perhaps it hadn’t been. She shuddered in the cold as a building came into view within the sheet of rain.

"Yes!" 

She made the final steps to the boathouse, finding the door unlocked, for some reason, though with the rust of the knob and the rot of the door frame she might have been able to jimmy it open had it been and the building mostly intact, it didn’t protect her from the cold but it kept out most of the rain. She looked around the building, an idea pulling at her gut that there was a room with a fire that she could rest from the rain in.

 

Looking to her left she found a door, limping over she found the door a bit harder to open but wiggled it open nonetheless.

There was a fireplace but she didn’t have matches or a lighter on her person, she looked around as well as she could, the adrenaline slowly dissipating from her system, leaving only the pain and cold, finding a blanket Marie wrapped it around herself before carefully sliding down the wall to sit. Her leg stretched out in front of her, a pained groan pushed through her teeth. 

The skin still hadn’t broken thankfully, but her whole shin was bruised a deep purple, with red around the edge, and fuck did it hurt. A deep throbbing pain, with the occasional shot of intense pain.

Now she just had to wait. 

She wondered if this was how Alec had felt, well minus the broken leg.

-Line-

Allison was no fool she knew trying to actually sprint to the boathouse would end up with both of them needing to be rescued so she took the wet terrain steadily, letting Alec’s memories guide her where she needed to be.

It seemed both no time at all and an eternity before she made it there, she pushed the cracked door open. Looking around with a flood of emotions so much had broken and reformed here. 

“Marie!” She called for the other woman, her voice ringing and echoing off the empty dock and water. 

“In here!” 

Of course, Allison shook her head and walked into the room she had waited in all those years ago. She hastily walked to the room and was greeted by the sight of Marie against the wall soaked the bone, her leg clearly worked.

She kneeled in front of the blond. 

“What was it my turn to wait?” Marie questioned her voice far away and slurred. Her eyes unfocused and bordering on glassy.

“No, you just like giving me the runaround.” Allison joked before pulling out her phone before calling the main phone at the house, feeling lucky that Claira had decided to keep the landline.

“You found her??” Damn Durham had a loud phone voice. 

“Yeah at the boathouse, you need to call an ambulance and get the paramedics down here I don’t think I can get her back up to the house. It looks like she hit her head, and she’s hurt her leg pretty bad.” 

“Right away, just keep her awake.” 

Like Allison was too stupid to know that, she hung up without replying.

“I kept dreaming about you, “ Marie slurred. “I thought I was insane, everyone thought I was insane.”

“Shhh.” Allison gently stroked Marie's hair allowing the golden strands slip through her fingers, “We have time to talk about that love, plenty of time to sort all that out. Right now you need to not think about dreams or you might fall into one.”

Marie laughed like Allison had just told her the greatest joke. 

“What should we talk about?”

Allison thought about it. “Well, how’d you decide to be a historian?”

Marie smiled, her eye’s coming back into focus.

"It started when I found this old picture of my great-grandmother.”

-End-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this is a part one of a bigger story, hence the ending it has and leaving somethings open. But I can't promise I will come back to this though I do hope to. As always a very deep thank you to all who read this story. 
> 
> Feel free to leave comments, or reach me at ideasandrps over on tumblr.
> 
> One more time thank you so much.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and feel free to leave a comment or chat with me over at my tumblr ideasandrps


End file.
